Google in legal battle over name translation

Google Inc. has been taken to court in China over the translation of its name, according to reports Friday.

Mountain View-based Google is translated “Guge” in China — a name belonging to Beijing Guge Sci-Tech Co. and registered at the Beijing Municipal Industrial and Commercial Bureau on April 19, 2006. Google’s “Guge” was registered on Nov. 24, 2006.

Associated Press reported that Beijing Guge Sci-Tech wants Google to change its Chinese name and pay legal costs, and says the double names have caused confusion and hurt its business.

Google counters that at the time Beijing Guge Sci-Tech registered its name, there were reports circulating on the Internet about Google’s name choice, AP reported.

To Google, the name represents songs from the valley, an allusion to Silicon Valley, AP reported. The Beijing company said the name means the sound of grain singing during autumn, or a cuckoo singing in the spring.